Code Breakers Complete Series: Books 1-4 (135 page)

Gabe stood and reached out to shake his hand. “Congratulations, man, ya did the right thing marrying this one. Finally gets ’er off my back.” He beamed a wide smile even as Petal slapped him on the back of the head.
 

“Thanks,” Gerry said. “For everything and for coming here.”

“I’m just sorry I couldn’t get here sooner,” Gabe said. “I’d have liked that best-man spot.”

“You’d have been my first choice,” Gerry said. “But it was kinda spontaneous; you know what it’s like.”

“Yeah, man, I get it, it’s all cool. Hey, let me introduce you to my daughter.”

Gabe made the introductions and explained the whole situation. Gerry had already heard it from Petal, but as he sat at that table, drinking and listening to his tales, Gerry knew that this was what it was all about.
 

A real family, not of blood, but of bonds that run far deeper.
 

Petal sat next to him as Gabe talked up some daring job he and his daughter pulled off for Figgy. Petal and Gerry held hands under the table, their bodies pressed together.
 

“I love you so much,” Petal whispered into his ear.
 

“And I you, you crazy, wonderful woman.”

For the rest of the night, they drank, told tales of their adventures, cried and toasted over the ones lost on the way, and celebrated those who had survived. Petal had informed Gerry that they were given the house as a gift from the City along with a symbolic key of freedom, meaning they could live out their lives without working or fighting. They were offered ambassadorial roles to teach the new generation about the city’s history.
 

Later that night, Gabe and the other guests having left, Gerry and Petal consummated their marriage and planned their future. By planning nothing at all.
 

“It’s time we just lived,” Petal said, laying her head against his chest, her finger outlining the scar from the bullet. “Just you and me, together, living, no more craziness.”

“I can’t agree more,” Gerry said.
 

But as they lay there, in pure bliss, a thought in the back of Gerry’s mind refused to go away. The numbers, Jess… 5-9-2-1-5-8-3-1-5-7-4-1.

Was she really…?
 

He ignored it.

Jess would just have to be a mystery for someone else—his job was done.

***

Outside, behind the house, Jess opened her eyes and removed herself from the hidden network. Gerry’s thoughts about her echoed in her mind and dissipated until there were no more. Jess looked at her index finger and the numbers and thought of Nolan.
 

He would have been so proud of their son.

The Family would live on—in good hands.

The End

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About Colin F. Barnes

Colin F. Barnes is a publisher and full-time writer of science fiction and techno thrillers. He honed his craft with the London School of Journalism and the Open University (BA, English). Colin has run a number of tech-based businesses, worked in rat-infested workshops, and scoured the back streets of London looking for characters and stories.
 

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Other Books by Colin F. Barnes

The Flotilla Chronicles:

Salt

Soil

Writing as Wearmouth & Barnes:

Critical Dawn

Critical Path

Critical Strike